Culture and Sports: Madonna to sing in Montenegro

02/07/2008

Pop superstar Madonna plans a concert in Montenegro. Also in the news: the fifth Athens International Dance festival opens, and Turkish midfielder Hamit Altintop is listed among the best players at Euro 2008.

[Getty Images]

Madonna will perform in Montenegro as part of her 50th-birthday global tour, Maksa Catovic, head of the Komuna production company, said on Sunday (June 29th). The concert will take place on Budva's Jaz Beach on September 25th. Budva is the only city in Eastern Europe where Madonna will perform.

***

The fifth Athens International Dance Festival opened on Tuesday (July 1st) in the Greek capital's suburb of Gazi. During the festival, award winners of the International Dance Competition in Hanover from 2006, 2007 and 2008 will perform, as will ten other foreign and Greek dance groups.

***

Turkish midfielder Hamit Altintop is listed among the best players at Euro 2008, which ended on Sunday (June 29th). The top Euro 2008 squad, announced on Monday by the UEFA Technical Team, consists of 23 players from eight quarterfinalist national teams. Spanish midfielder Xavi won Best Player.

***

The three-day B'ESTFEST Music Festival opens on Friday (July 4th) at the Romexpo Exhibition Centre in Bucharest. Some of the biggest contemporary music stars will perform, including Alanis Morissette, Nelly Furtado, Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics and Cypress Hill.

***

A festival of French and francophone cinema opened in Ohrid, Macedonia, on Monday (June 30th). The five-day event will feature ten long and two short French-language films. Macedonian Culture Minister Arifhikmet Xhemaili and French Ambassador to Skopje Bernard Valero opened the event.

***

Bosnia and Herzegovina's leading summer cultural festival, "The Nights of Bascarsija", started on Tuesday (July 1st) with the world premiere of Eric Breton's opera "Lyssi" as a part of the Night of French Music. The annual festival runs through the month of July, and many of its events are staged in historic Sarajevo.

***

Participants from 15 countries giving 130 performances are appearing in the 48th International Children's Festival in Sibenik, Croatia, which started on June 21st. Every year, for two weeks, Sibenik hosts musicians, actors, filmmakers, poets, puppeteers and other performers for the young spectators. The festival receives support from UNICEF and UNESCO and is sponsored by Croatian President Stipe Mesic.

(Various sources – 25/06/08-02/07/08)